The present invention relates to the structure of a guide rail for a sliding door on an automotive vehicle, and more particularly to a sealing arrangement and an improvement in the appearance of the guide rail.
Conventionally, vehicles such as vans or minibuses are generally provided with at least one sliding door. The guide rail of such a sliding door is mounted on a rear quarter panel by means of welding, bolts, or a combination thereof. However, water easily enters the space between the guide rail and the rear quarter panel so that the welded or bolted parts are apt to rust. Thus, rusty water spreads onto the outer panel thereby spoiling its appearance. Further, if the rust continues to grow in the joints between the guide rail and the outer panel, this will possibly cause the guide rail to fall down.
The guide rail is generally made of a lustrous metal such as stainless steel so as to show a good appearance, for example, as one kind of mouldings. On the assembly line, however, the body painting process is conducted after mounting the guide rail onto the vehicle body. Therefore, in order to keep the lustre of the guide rail after the painting process, it is necessary to mask the guide rail when the vehicle body is subjected to the painting process. This requires the additional process of applying masking tape to the guide rail thereby increasing the cost and lowering the working efficiency.